Council accepts Mozingo center construction bid

TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
City manager Greg McDanel, right, presents a proposal to the City Council Wednesday for acceptance of the bid by E.L. Crawford Construction of St. Joseph to build a conference center and golf course clubhouse at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park. “Value engineering” has been applied in order to reduce Crawford’s original $5.7 million bid to $4.5 million. Construction of the facility could begin as early as next week.

Even after the low bid from E.L. Crawford Construction came in $1.7 million over budget, there never was much doubt the City of Maryville was going to proceed with building a conference center and golf course clubhouse at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

And during a special City Council session Wednesday with Mayor Pro Tem Rachael Martin presiding in the absence of Mayor Jason McDowell, the governing board adopted a proposal set forth by City Manager Greg McDanel that appeared to offer a way forward — for a few dollars more.

Earlier this fall, after Crawford’s $5.7 million bid came in, McDanel declared that municipal staff still had “confidence” in the project, and that “value engineering” the original design by Wertzberger Architects of Marshalltown, Iowa, which has since been fired on the city manager’s recommendation, could save enough money to keep the facility fiscally viable.

And so it seems to have done, barely.

On Wednesday, again acting on a staff recommendation, the council accepted Crawford’s bid, then immediately adopted a change order to the contract knocking the proposed price tag down to a little more than $4.5 million.

That’s more than the estimate that was used to sell voters on supporting an eighth of a cent on the dollar sales tax to pay for the facility, but remains inside the city’s bonded limit of $4.6 million.

The bond figure is based on the amount of money the sales tax is expected to produce over 20 years plus approximately $109,000 that will become available annually when debt assumed to construct cart paths at Mozingo’s Sechrest 18 golf course is paid off.

McDanel told the council that his staff and Crawford representatives have been working together to shave as much money off the bid as possible, mostly through modifications to the architect’s plan involving cosmetic features, such as reducing the amount of exterior stone wainscoting and opting for less expensive mechanical devices, such as locks, doors, windows, and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning).

For example, McDanel said, instead of installing custom windows and door locks, Crawford proposes using standard commercial-grade hardware available from local vendors.

Other value-engineering modifications, he said, embrace reducing the size of a planned exterior deck, elimination of a proposed retaining wall through grading, using city crews to install storm drainage infrastructure, and switching a portion of the proposed new parking area from pavement to gravel.

Unchanged, he said, will be the facility’s size and core functionality, which is to include two levels of amenities comprising 5,500 square-feet of modular meeting space designed to accommodate receptions, banquets, and other events attended by up to 500 people.

Proposed features also include a covered west-facing deck, indoor golf cart storage, a pro shop, offices, and instantly convertible space designed to do double duty as an emergency storm shelter.

In addition, the center is to contain a full-service restaurant to be operated by a private third-party vendor and a lower-level outdoor dining patio overlooking the lake.

Asked why the architect’s plan veered so far out of whack, given the fact that Wertzberger has designed similar facilities in Iowa in conjunction with Boulders Inn & Suites, the company currently constructing a 40-unit hotel at Mozingo that will adjoin the conference center, McDanel speculated that an out-of-state project had moved the firm “out of its wheelhouse.”

Still, he said, the basic Wertzberger design is sound and will meet the city’s expectations now that adjustments have been made to bring the project more or less within budget.

“From a facility standpoint (hiring Wertzberger) was still a good decision,” McDanel said.

While the city has left itself with little fiscal wiggle room in accepting the Crawford change order, McDanel said delays caused by problems with the architect have created some financial leeway.

For example, the proposed hiring of a conference center events coordinator, a professional position with full benefits, will now be delayed until fiscal 2018. Also, money allocated for marketing the new center will remain unspent during the current budget year.

Had everything gone according to plan, conference center construction would have begun this summer. As things stand now the decks are cleared for Crawford to arrive on site as early as next week.

Assuming there are no more delays, McDanel said, construction is set to continue through the winter with the aid of cement warming equipment and other cold weather construction techniques.

If all goes well, the facility should be open for use by park patrons about this time next year.